Food Friday: Fail

M and I set out today to make some simple oven baked onion rings from our new Better Homes and Gardens Kid Favorites Made Healthy cookbook.  The recipe calls for dipping circles of onion in egg white then fine, dry breadcrumbs mixed with melted butter, then baking them in a hot oven.

I certainly started out with the best of intentions and enthusiasm.  M and I went to Albert Heijn to pick up some supplies, but yet again we were met with blank looks when looking for a product.  This time it was cooking spray.  This isn't really something I bought regularly in the States, but I know I could find it just about anywhere.  Do we really not export Pam?  The shopkeeper, trying to be helpful, pointed me towards something which turned out to be a weird liquid form of Benecol.  I know this because I bought it.

The amount of onion the recipe called for

The amount of onions the crumbs actually covered

The second thing that tripped me up was how the breadcrumbs stuck--or rather didn't stick--to the onions.  I chalked this up to the breadcrumbs being either not fine enough or not dry enough--maybe both.  Certainly, they were not nearly plentiful enough.  The recipe called for 3/4 cup; I made about a cup and they "covered" (using the term loosely) about 12 rings rather than the 2 whole onions indicated in the recipe.

Sad, burnt onion rings

Not having the cooking spray wasn't such a problem, since it was only for greasing the cookie sheet. If I was thinking I wouldn't have even stressed about this since I prefer to use straight oil at high temperatures because it's easier to clean up.

No, the real problem with this recipe is that I overcooked it because I was in the living room watching Conjunction Junction with M and didn't hear the timer go off.  We ate the non-charred onion rings and all three of us enjoyed them.  I'll definitely attempt this again (maybe after I get a food processor or some type of tool that will allow me to make finer bread crumbs).